I just purchased a home in June and the previous owners loved asparagus. As I write this we have 2 raised beds with very healthy asparagus prawns. I would like to have a harvest next year. How do I put the asparagus to bed for the winter without killing it? Should I just clip it or is there something else that I should do.

After the first frost, I cut the asparagus near soil level with loppers a stack to the side. I then take a sharp shovel and cut below soil level. Hollow stalks can allow a borer down to the crown over the winter. Then I add some lime and 3 inches of compost, grind the stalks and spread back. In March, I'll add a pound of ice cream salt per 100 sq. ft.

The salt? Not for weeds. Asparagus is a salt marsh plant. Adding this much salt seems to really help it grow and keeps it healthy. I picked this up from the Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening:
"For healthy asparagus, add sodium chloride rock salt (NaCl) to beds more than one year old. Apply 2.5 lb. per 100' row either before spears appear or around July 4. Research shows this treatment helps asparagus resist crown and root rot diseases caused by Fusariom fungi and also improves overall growth. Don't use iodized table salt or rock salt made with calcium chloride (CaCl). Pickling salt, however, is fine for the job" 1997 page 38.

Meloc, I wish the salt helped with weeds. Not at all! The guy from You Bet Your Garden, Mike McGraf claims the salt runs the worms off. That's not true in my experience. It's not a lot of salt but makes a huge difference.

a friend salts his asparagus bed every year and his is weed free. lots of stuff doesn't like salt and that's why i am careful not to use it on my bed. my bed sits close to rhubarb, horseradish and a flower bed. salt likes to move with water so i don't want to turn any other beds into a barren, salty wasteland. of course, my friend tosses so much rock salt that it looks like half an inch of snow!

my asparagus has responded well to one thing in particular...weeding. it was in competition with the horseradish and weeds like burdock and curly dock. once i dug those out from beside my asparagus, it started spreading like crazy.

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this message has probably been edited to correct typos, spelling errors and to improve grammar...

I guess your friend uses a lot more salt than I do or his soil is different from mine. I rotate crops around both sides of the asparagus and have no problems.
The next thing I'm going to try is to lasagna mulch half the asparagus to help deal with the weeds.

I just mow the dead stalks after they die. I add a little manure on top of the old mulch, some cottonseed meal cover with another layer of mulch and they have done fine for many years. They are the easiest crop to grow. I water if it is real dry in the summer. Also if we have a dry fall will water well in late Oct or early Nov.. Jay

Rather than salt, apply potash. As I recall, 5-5-30 was the fertilizer for tobacco and asparagus around here. Now I see that a fertilizer high in potassium is what's recommended for establishing a bed.